


Spirit -not so- Well High School

by Xion5



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Abuse, Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Drama, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-29
Updated: 2014-06-15
Packaged: 2018-01-17 11:54:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 19,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1386682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xion5/pseuds/Xion5
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's never easy being the new kid, and when you've been expelled from two other schools and left another because of being bullied, then it's even less easy being new. And making an enemy out of a grumpy Australian and catching the eye of the school delinquent on your first day probably wont help you much ether. Guardian High School AU and rated T because I'm cautious.<br/>This story was adopted from the fabulous author Starskulls and the first 5 and 3/4 (approximately) chapters were written by her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Being the New Kid

Spirit -not so- Well High School

Chapter 1: Being the New Kid

It was weird being the new kid. You walk in the halls and people stare at you, not knowing what to ask or say. It's not like you can go up to a random group and say 'Hey I'm the new kid! Want to be my friends?' You just can't. It's too weird for some people.

For Jackson Overland Frost, it was more than weird. It was lonely, hurtful and most definitely weird. Standing in front of his new school called SpiritWell High School was sixteen year old Jack Frost himself. He lived at the Burgess Orphanage for at least four years ever since his parents… Jack always shuddered at the memories that he wished he could forget. Not to mention his little sister Emma was now… Jack almost slapped himself for feeling sorry for himself.

Now Jack had a secret talent that he loved to do but he hated it when people from school saw him because they always made fun of him. Boys his age usually played football, rugby and things like that but him. He was different. Just once he would like to be in a school that accepted him. He had been to three different schools, all three of them being far out of Burgess. Twice he had been expelled and the last one he had left since he had been so depressed from being bullied that he had had an emotional breakdown in the middle of the dinner hall.

One member of the orphanage had dropped him off and she was also the assistant to the boss of the orphanage who made him promise to watch his temper and to behave. He had promised to watch his temper but he made no promises for the last one. One of his favorite things to do was play pranks and that got him into a LOT of trouble in his other schools.

However, the boss knew how tough this was for him. He hadn't made a friend in years.

He was dressed in brown pants with white trainers and his favorite dark blue hoodie. He hated wearing shoes as they always hurt his feet. He preferred to run about in the grass and snow barefoot as he was more free that way. It was the beginning of the new year of school so it was colder and he had to wear them. Man he had always loved winter and his name went with the season.

He gripped his black sling on bag on his shoulder and closed his electric blue eyes and ran a hand through his snow white hair. A fresh start, he thought. He prayed that people wouldn't make fun of his natural white hair and eyes because he hadn't done anything to them. It was all natural.

"Come on now. You can do this" Jack said to himself but looking at the brown bricked building in front of him that seemed to loom over him, he felt nervous. He didn't want to be kicked out of school again. Jack started up the front steps and his feet felt like lumps of iron as if they didn't want him to go in.

Jack stretched out a hand and pushed open the front door to be greeted by the morning smell of coffee and cooking in the canteen. It must be about half past ten already. Where was he supposed to go? As if he had said it out loud, a tall man wearing a suit and tie with grey hair and eyes came out of a room and came down the corridor towards him.

"Ah you must be our new student Mr. Frost" the man said warmly. Jack nodded without any emotion.

"Yeah. The name's Jack" Jack said blankly. The man said nothing about his attitude but carried on smiling.

"Well then, my name is Manfred Moon but please call me Mr. Moon and I am the Head Teacher of this school" Mr. Moon said. "Now I understand, you have been excluded from two schools and you left the last one?" he asked ad Jack nodded.

"That's right" he said not wanting to explain why he left the last one to some head teacher he barely knew. He would have looked at his school records anyway.

"Well this is a fresh start so here is your timetable so you can start at lesson two now. Come I will show you the way" Mr. Moon said handing a piece of paper to him and walking down the hall with Jack trailing behind. Jack sighed and looked at his timetable sheet.

Period 1: Mathematics

Period 2: English

Break

Period 3: History

Period 4: Art

Lunch

Period 5: P.E

Jack had to smile at the last one for that one was his best one. He always liked staying active and practicing moves. Mostly fighting moves to defend himself against bullies. Math was his least favorite. There were letters in equations. Letters did not belong in Math, they belong in English! What about lunch? Where would he go and who would he sit with? He didn't want to think about that now.

He stopped at a door that Mr. Moon had gone into and he heard the scarping of a chair being moved and he figured that the teacher must be making space for him. Mr. Moon then walked back out and gestured for him to go inside. "You will do fine Jack and my door is always open if you need to talk" Mr. Moon said before smiling once more and walking off.

Jack wasn't sure if he liked this teacher or not. He seemed nice but there was something about him that was… picky. Well, it was time to go in and face the fire.

He took one step into the classroom and all eyes were on him.


	2. First Impressions

Spirit -not so- Well High School

Chapter 2: First Impressions

Now he felt a little nervous with all the eyes watching him. He wasn't sure what to do and the teacher could see this. "Ah you must be Jack" the teacher said smiling.

"Yeah that's me" Jack replied. Some kids were snickering at him already but Jack ignored them.

"Well, it is nice to meet you Jack. Your seat is here" the teacher said, pointing to a desk near the front. Nodding, Jack stepped forward down the middle row of all the desks and his mind was screaming for him not to fall. He would so angry at himself if he did.

More whispers came to his ears and he saw that kids were looking at his hair. Just the usual, he thought glumly. He reached his desk and sat down, relieved that he didn't fall over or do anything stupid. He took his bag off and dropped it onto the floor and gave it a kick so it went under his desk.

The teacher smiled at him as she placed a Mathematics Exercise Book in front of him, along with a writing book to write down questions and answers. "Just put your name on it and just copy down what I put on the board. My name is Miss Autumn" she said smiling.

Jack looked at her. With her reddish brown hair and hazel eyes, the name suited her as the spirit of Autumn. Bit odd though. But coming from him with hair white as snow, he was like the spirit of Winter and his name clearly fitted!

It annoyed him that she talked to him like he hadn't written on the front of a book before though. Miss Autumn smiled and looked back up at the rest of her class. "Now then, I will be putting questions on the board for you to do. I will be going to Mr. Moon's office for a couple of minutes so I want complete silence" Miss Autumn said which earned eye rolling and nods.

The teacher turned her back and started writing on the board with a board marker and she wrote the questions down so fast, her hand was almost a blur! After putting ten questions on the board and making sure everyone was beginning to work on them, Miss Autumn walked to the back of the classroom and exited the room, slamming the door behind her.

The second she was gone, the class all stopped what they were doing and started chatting to each other. Not Jack. Who could he talk to? Jack hid the corner of his face with his hand and he started on the questions. As much as he hated Math, he was pretty good at it and he did half of them in forty seconds.

"Hey new kid!" a voice came from the back which was an Australian accent. Laughing followed the call so Jack didn't bother to look around. He carried on working and ignored the caller. "Hey, I'm talking to you!" the voice came again but Jack still did nothing. This time, there were no more calls but a tear and a crumple of paper was heard. Next thing that Jack knew was that a paper ball had hit him on his back and laughter was echoing about.

The paper ball then bounced on the front of Jack's desk and Jack got curious. He put down his pen and pulled the ball back into a crumply sheet of paper. It had a stick figure on the front with two blue dots for eyes and an arrow pointing to the head of the stick figure. It had the word Frostbite at the end of the arrow and at the bottom of the piece of paper, there was the sentence, 'Do you dye your hair weirdo?'

Jack huffed in annoyance at the usual question but more so at the nickname. Jack re-crumpled up the paper and turned around to see the thrower. It came from a boy who was wearing a grey shirt and blue jeans and had green eyes and tanned skin. He had dark blackish hair and a red bandanna was tied around his head.

Jack cocked his head at this appearance and his eyes gleamed as he noticed the features that resembled him to a certain animal. The boy stopped laughing and looked at Jack, "Well, do you?" he asked. A random kid in the class butted in.

"Aster asked you a question weirdo!" the kid shouted.

Jack blinked. Aster. So that was his name. "No I don't Aster." he replied but this caused the class to laugh harder.

"Yeah right! It just makes you look weirder!" Aster said and to Jack this guy was being very prejudiced. Jack's bad habit took control of him and he drew his arm back and flung the paper ball at Aster.

It hit him right in the face and the whole class gasped. Not just at the fact that he had just thrown something at Aster but with such good aim too. "I don't care what you think Aster. I would rather have hair like this than look like a Kangaroo. Just hop off and shut it will you?" Jack said in annoyance.

The entire class went silent and a couple of their jaws dropped. Aster's cheeks were burning at this. "Why ya bloody little show pony…" Aster began and he was about to get up from his seat to teach that kid a lesson but Miss Autumn walked in.

She raised an eyebrow at the teen, "Is everything alright Aster?" she asked and Aster slumped down in his seat.

"Fine Miss" he replied although he was cursing on the inside. Miss Autumn then noticed the paper that was still crumpled up and by the side of Aster's desk. She bent down and picked it up and she frowned when she saw what was on it.

"You think it is funny to call people names do you?" she asked and before Aster could say anything else, she simply said, "Detention after school."

The kids in the room had wide eyes as Miss Autumn went to the front. Jack looked up at her from under his hair and she gave a small smile. Jack did nothing but he really regretted saying that. He would never hear the end of it and the kids would probably pick on him more now, especially Aster. He could actually sense and feel his anger wafting towards him. It wasn't nice.

But a yellow eyed kid, who hadn't been laughing with the rest, had his eyes on Jack. He sat at the back corner of every class and for good reason but that wasn't what mattered right now.

This white haired kid seemed different from the rest. This Jack seemed… cold. And this happened to be perfect. He, Pitch Black was filled with darkness in his heart and he was feared throughout the school. What went better together than cold and dark? There was an aura about Jack. An aura that he wanted to learn a lot more about.

Jack sighed to himself and carried on working, not noticing but feeling a strange presence watching him.


	3. Kind Silence

Spirit -not so- Well High School

Chapter 3: Kind Silence

After fifty minutes had passed and the class all had extra homework due to Aster, the whole class bounded out of the classroom while chatting loudly over the noise of the bell and the increasing number of kids coming out from classes and making their way to their lockers. Jack was the last one out of the class, trailing behind seeing as he hadn't made any friends yet and he hadn't made a good start.

Taking another look at his timetable, he saw that his locker was down near the canteen. Lucky since it was break next. He silently hoped that he wouldn't run into Aster as he knew that he wouldn't be happy. Not happy at all.

Finally, he found his locker and saw that it wasn't old and didn't have any graffiti on it or anything bad. He took his bag of his back and dumped it on the floor in front of his locker and he twirled the dial that opened his locker. It opened with a creak and Jack saw that all the books he needed were already in there and also his gym kit too. Jack then picked up his bag again and emptied the books out and put in his history book and his gym kit.

As he shut his locker with a sigh, he heard the scuffle of a jammed locker next to him and he looked to the left slightly. He saw a kid about his age, who had sandy colored hair and was wearing a golden colored top, blue jeans and had a red scarf around his neck. His golden colored eyes were narrowed in frustration as he struggled to pull his locker open.

Now Jack was usually willing to help anyone but since he was new here, he wasn't so sure. Well this kid didn't really seem that threatening unlike Aster so he decided to help. "Umm… hey… do you uh… need help with that?" Jack said with a slight stutter in his voice.

The golden haired boy looked at him and raised his eyebrows. Now Jack thought he was giving him the 'Are-you-talking-to-me?' look so Jack looked away in embarrassment and started to walk away. But actually, the golden haired boy was surprised that this new white haired boy wanted to help him seeing as he was quite short and was quite easily ignored.

As he was about to walk away, the golden haired boy tugged at the new kid's hoodie who turned around in surprise. "You want help?" Jack asked and the boy nodded in response. Jack was now smiling on the inside but didn't show it.

Jack then stood in front of the jammed locker and banged on it three times with his fist. The locker swung open easily and Jack looked at the golden haired boy who was smiling happily. After a few seconds, Jack really wanted the boy to talk to him but he didn't which hurt him a little. The boy seemed to notice and quickly pulled a notepad and pencil out of his pocket. He quickly scribbled down something and held it up to Jack.

'Sorry, I can't talk, my voice box is damaged and it hurts too much for me to speak so this is the only way I can communicate. My name is Sanderson ManSnoozie by the way. Who are you?'

Jack nodded understandably, "I see. My name is Jack. Jack Frost" Jack said holding out a hand and Sandy shook it happily and then started to write something else down.

'Nice to meet you Jack! Jack Frost, as the Winter Spirit? I don't want to be rude but do you dye your hair and do you wear contacts?'

Jack smiled, it usually bothered him if someone else asked this but Sandy didn't seem the mean type. "Yeah the name matches doesn't it? And no, I don't. It's all natural! Hey there is an upside; you wouldn't lose me in a busy crowd" Jack said and Sandy laughed but no sound came out of his mouth but Jack knew that he had made a good comment.

Sandy then scribbled down something else and held it up.

'Hey, do you want to sit with me and my friends at lunch? They would love to meet you!'

Now Jack was so happy, he could have jumped up and down like crazy but he kept his cool. "Yeah sure" Jack said with a smile. Sandy smiled too but a loud slamming of a locker that made the pair look in the direction of the noise.

Pitch, was watching them as he finished taking the things out of his locker. Jack was still unaware of his name but Sandy knew all too well who this guy was. He gave him a sharp glare but his attention seemed to be on Jack. Pitch did nothing but smile and walk off in the opposite direction and Jack turned to Sandy, "Who was that kid? Seems kind of… odd" Jack said but who was he to judge?

Sandy scribbled down something down and held it up for Jack to see.

'His name is Pitch. Pitch Black. He is a bit odd for definite! He picks on everyone at school and sometimes he gets in fights with kids too. Last year, he wrecked the fair and picked on all the younger kids!'

Jack's blood boiled at this. He picked on little kids? That was just plain mean! If he caught Pitch doing that he would… No! He wouldn't get kicked out of school again. "Sounds like a real jerk" Jack commented and Sandy nodded in agreement.

The bell rang through the air again and Jack realized that he had been talking to Sandy for the whole of break! Wow that was a record! "Hey Sandy, I have History next! Have you?" Jack said and Sandy nodded and gestured with his hand to follow him. "Great!" he said smiling. The pair then rushed to History class and for the first time in a very long time, Jack felt happy.


	4. Typical

Spirit -not so- Well High School

Typical

The next two classes went past like lightning and Jack didn't enjoy them as much as he had hoped. In History, he was sitting at the front and twice, Aster, who was sitting behind him, had jogged his desk with his foot which caused Jack's writing to go a bit scrawny and messy.

In Art, Aster had got him again by trying to spill paint on him and trying to trip him up. Thankfully, Jack had very good balancing skills and was quite light on his feet. Jack was more gutted as he couldn't sit by Sandy in any of these lessons but on his own down the front. He found it quite amusing that all the teachers sat him down on the front. Typical, he had thought.

Once the bell had rung, he had asked Sandy to save him a seat since the teacher had made him to stay behind and help tidy up with the paints even when she knew it wasn't his fault.

Sandy who was quite happy today that he had made a new friend but he didn't quite understand what was wrong with Aster today, seeing as he had seemingly tried to disrupt Jack a lot today. Probably because some random kid had made him get detention in Math which he had found rather amusing.

He had remembered to save a seat for Jack but first, he and his friends needed to find a free table. He entered the Dinner Hall which was bustling with kids racing to get food which Sandy never ate. Sandy always suspected that the dinner ladies put poison in the food as sometimes kids went home whilst being sick. Thankfully, his mother packed him nice healthy sandwiches.

His eyes fell upon a free table and he quickly jogged to it as he didn't want anyone else to take it. He sat down on the green chair and started to unpack his lunch. "Hey Sandy!"

Sandy turned his head to be faced with a blue eyed boy towering over him. But this boy was not his foe but his friend. He wore a thick red jumper as he always loved to have something Christmassy on him as the color red was associated with Christmas. He wore black trainers with grey joggers and his hair was a dark brown. He was Russian as he had moved here just as Sandy had started High School. Very nice but very loud indeed. His name was Nicolas St. North but everyone called him North for short.

"Ah good job saving seat Sandy! I did not want to eat outside again! Birds try to steal my food!" North said sitting down and opening his very big lunch as he had quite an appetite.

"Yeah thanks Sandy!" a female voice said. The girl who sat down next to North had a startling appearance. She had light brown hair but had pink, blue and green highlights! Her eyes were a pretty amethyst and she wore a summer dress in nearly all the colors of the rainbow but a light green seemed to stick out the most. She wanted to be a dentist when she was older as she had a strange obsession with teeth, so she refused to eat anything sugary that could get her teeth to have fillings. Sandy didn't seem the point of this as she flossed five times a day!

Tooth brushed her hair over her shoulders and pulled out a salad sandwich. "So guys, how has your day been so far?" Tooth asked.

North smiled, "Well, I had an A in wood shop today!" North said smiling.

"I had an A in English too!" Tooth said happily.

Sandy pulled out his note pad and was about to write down that he had made friends with the new kid until a very grumpy Australian came and sat down next to Sandy. Tooth smirked as she knew what was wrong, having heard a couple of kids talking about it.

"Aster? You alright?" she asked. Bunny pulled his sandwich which happened to be a carrot one and he growled in anger.

"No, it has been awful! First that weird new kid gets me detention, he got me into trouble with the Art teacher and she didn't even shout at him when he tried to spill paint on me!" Aster said angrily. Sandy shifted in his seat. New kid? Uh oh.

"Well you did start it." North said eating a cookie.

"That doesn't matter! He didn't have to say anything!" Aster replied. Tooth shook her head and looked at Sandy.

"So what were you saying Sandy?" she asked and was quite surprised when he started to write down really quickly what he wanted to say and then held it up.

'Well my day has been good but we, or should I say, Aster has a problem. I made friends with Jack today and I may have invited him over to sit with us. I couldn't help it, he was really nice and not weird at all Aster!'

Aster looked like he was going to explode, "You did what?!" he hissed, not wanting to make a scene.

"Well I think that was a very nice idea." Tooth commented and North nodded.

"Yes it is. Come on Aster, it isn't nice to pick on people." North said and Aster was about to retort to that when he saw the familiar glimpse of a white haired teen coming through the doors to dinner.

"There he is now but don't stare! He won't notice us otherwise!" Bunny said looking down at his meal. Now Sandy thought that Aster was being downright childish but he prayed that Jack would have forgotten in case Aster was itching to have a fight.

Jack had been so relieved that he wasn't in trouble and his stomach was growling by the time he came in for dinner. He only fancied an apple; a red one to be precise, and then he would go and talk to Sandy and maybe make friends with his friends. But as soon as he grabbed an apple and looked for Sandy which wasn't really hard, he saw that Aster was sitting by him.

Oh crap and this was just typical! The only friend he made happened to be friends with his enemy! Jack wanted to walk away but then he stopped. He always seemed to walk away from his problems but not today. He knew just what to do. His feet found themselves walking towards the table but a voice at the back of his mind was screaming at him to turn around.

Aster rolled his eyes as Jack approached them. "If you are here to sit with us then you have another think coming! No weirdo's." Aster said and Sandy scowled at him as did Tooth and North.

"Please ignore him. I am Toothania Ferry but everyone calls me Tooth!" Tooth chirped holding out a hand which Jack shook warmly.

"I am North!" North said, almost crushing Jack's had when they shook hands.

"Nice to meet you two. I am Jack. Jack Frost. I have met Aster obviously and Sandy at break." Jack said and Sandy smiled.

"So are you gonna sit with us?" North asked brightly and Aster felt like kicking him. He didn't want that freak sitting on their table! People would laugh at them.

Jack was considering this but the look he got from Aster said it all. He wasn't a psychic but he knew what Aster would say. "Look, I really want to but there is no point of me sitting in a place where I am not wanted so I will leave you lot to eat in peace. That way, you won't have some white haired weirdo at your table so people won't laugh at you." Jack said and Aster was actually shocked. It was like Jack had read his thoughts!

North, Tooth and Sandy did nothing but secretly give a death glare at Aster. That was so mean! He had actually said that to Jack.

Just as Jack was about to walk away, he remembered something. "By the way Aster, I talked to Miss Autumn and she has let you off detention. I just told her the paper thing was a joke and for a bit of a laugh." Jack said, before biting into his apple and walking off out of the hall.

Aster was speechless. Jack had bailed him out? After what he had said?

'I hope you are happy'

Sandy had written this in messy writing which showed his anger and Tooth shook her head disapprovingly.

"I am surprised Aster. I thought you were supposed to be nice to people." she said.

"Tooth is right. You should say sorry after to him!" North said.

Aster was feeling a bit guilty but he would not go and say sorry! People will think he was soft and Aster Bunnymund was NOT soft!

None of the five had noticed that Mr. Moon had heard and seen the whole thing. He saw Jack was slowing fitting in fine but he and the others needed to bond as they were quite a group. The Big Five, Mr. Moon thought with a smile as he then thought of a plan that would make this Easter Festival the best in school history.


	5. Served By the Class Freak

Spirit -not so- Well High School

Served By the Class Freak

Jack had exited the hall right after leaving the table and now his heart rate had calmed down. He made his way outside into the field which happened to be near the P.E hall and then stood there, eating the rest of his apple. True to his word, he had talked to Miss Autumn to let Aster off, only because he didn't want him to be having a go at him for the rest of the year. But he was a bit hurt about what Aster had said to him; that and he didn't say thank you.

Oh well, it doesn't kill you for trying. He then noticed some boys watching him further away and they had smirks plastered onto their faces. He recognized them from his math class as they had seemed extremely pissed when they got extra homework when they knew it was really his fault and not Aster's.

Don't stare Jack, he thought, edging away a little but this didn't go unnoticed by the boys. They started to walk towards him so Jack turned his back on them and started to walk away fairly quickly. But the boys picked up their pace too and soon, Jack was running across the field with the gang of boys chasing after him.

Nobody else on the school grounds seemed to care that Jack was probably going to get beaten up. Hey, how did he know that he was going to get beaten up anyway? "Hey freak! Come here and have a little chat with us!" one of them yelled tauntingly. Well, that was answered.

"Aw, he's scared!" other yelled.

Jack felt his brain vibrate as he had voice in his head repeating that last word but he shook it to snap himself out of it. Feeling the wind ripple his hoodie, his eyes then caught the sight of tree with a lower branch within his reach and a big leaf pile in front of the tree. He then had an idea. Picking up his speed, he then made a strong kick and it made contact with the leaf pile and as soon as the boys were nearly there, they found a storm of orange and brown leaves clouding their vision. Spluttering and flailing their hands to swipe the leaves away.

When they finally did, they saw that Jack was gone. "Where'd he go?" one snarled, looking around in rage. They looked around but their eyes couldn't find the white haired teen.

"Let's look for him in the canteen or something. He isn't that hard to find." someone suggested and they all nodded in agreement, then walking off even though a few of them felt like he was watching them and smirking at them.

In fact, Jack was watching them from high up in the tree, hidden by the remaining few leaves on the branches. The leaves had been a diversion and when they couldn't see, he had used the low branch to climb up high into the tree, safe. He couldn't stop smirking at their stupidity as he started to climb down as he heard the bell go for the final lesson.

Walking quickly over to the hall in case they did come back, he pulled up his hood and soon found himself standing by the entrance to the Sports hall. Nobody paid him the slightest bit of attention as he stood there and he wasn't really that bothered. The doors to the hall then opened and everyone jammed inside and for once, Jack was glad he was wearing shoes. As he followed the boys into the changing room, he quickly found a corner of the room where nobody went to. It was a bit grubby but Jack didn't care as he quickly pulled on his black shorts and blue t-shirt.

Looking down, he saw that he legs were remarkably thin but again he wasn't bothered. He didn't want to be like all the others boys here, buff and tough; he simply liked being himself. The smell of Lynx invaded his nostrils as the other boys, who had quickly changed, walked past him so he followed them out but kept his distance. When they got into the hall, Jack saw everyone else shivering from the coldness of the hall. It was rather large and some of the windows were open so Jack could see why they were all shivering. He never got cold for some odd reason; it was if he was adapted to cold weather like a penguin or something.

"Jack!" a voice called. Jack turned his head around, nervous that those boys were back but then saw that it was North, followed by Sandy, Tooth and Aster. Jack wondered why Tooth was here but when he saw other girls coming into the hall, he guessed that they all did the same things as a class. Usually it was separate.

"Uh…hey" Jack said awkwardly. North looked around and saw that the teachers weren't here yet so he smiled.

"Since teachers are not here, let's chat! How has your day been so far?" he asked. Jack shrugged.

"Peachy." he said, sneakily shooting Aster a look. Not his favorite person.

Sandy pulled out his notepad, scribbled something down and held it up for Jack to see. "So how are you finding this school?" he wrote and put a smile on his face. Jack shrugged again.

"Not much difference with my other schools." he said and then realized he let slip one of the things he shouldn't have said.

"Other schools?" Tooth asked curiously.

"Yeah, I uh… got kicked out of my other ones." Jack said. Damn he said it again!

"How many is others?" North asked and Jack shuffled from foot to foot.

"Three." he said as if it wasn't a big thing but Tooth definitely saw it as a big thing.

"Three?!" she said, quite loudly so others looked over at the little group oddly. Now Aster came into the conversation but not in a nice way.

"Three? Ha! Looks like no one wants you." he said with a scoff and North glared at him.

"Aster! That is not nice thing to say!" he scolded but Jack folded his arms.

"It's fine North. I'm used to it, believe it or not." he said, trying to hide the hurt in his voice before walking off on his own somewhere in the hall. Sandy then trod upon Aster's foot and he let out a yelp.

"Crikey mate! What was that for?" he asked but Tooth answered for him.

"For being mean! I have never seen you so mean towards anyone before like this!" she said crossly. "For shame!" she added. The shrill sound of a whistle made Aster stop as he was about to object to Tooth's comment and turned his head to where the whistle was coming from.

"Alright maggots! Gymnastics today!" the teacher called. A few girls chattered excitedly but the boys all groaned.

"Bah! Gymnastics are too flim flam! Fencing is much better!" North said as he was a good fencer although he was trying to be the best swordsman there was in Burgess.

"Nah mate, Tai Chi is better than both of those things." Aster pointed out. As they were bickering, the teachers and a few kids started pulling two sets of equipment out so there were two rows, one for the boys and one for the girls.

There were some mats leading out to a mini trampoline and a long pole out in front of the trampoline. "So you see the routine. Do some running or flips to pick up speed to the trampoline. Come out of the flips, jump onto the trampoline with a following somersault, go round on the bar a couple of times before flipping off and landing in the correct position." the teacher barked. Everyone nodded and murmured responses as they began to stretch. "You will be graded by your overall performance!" the teacher added.

Aster scoffed. "No problem! I can do this crap with my eyes closed!" he boasted.

"Really Aster? I beg to differ." another voice sneered. Aster turned to see Pitch who leaning against the wall, with his arms folded.

"Get lost rat bag." Aster snapped.

"Oh go suck an egg." Pitch retorted and Aster went bright red, not with embarrassment but with anger. Pitch knew his lover for Easter and he knew all too well that Easter was his weakness. Pitch had once tried to sabotage his Easter Festival but thankfully, he had noticed that the stage with all the eggs had all of its nails loosened so it would collapse and he could smell the flammable liquid in the air.

"We have no quarrel with you Pitch." Sandy wrote, holding his notepad up for Pitch to see. Pitch smirked and looked at Aster."

"Not with me maybe. Never knew you could be mean to someone like him." Pitch said, casting his eyes over to the white haired teen who was helping with the equipment. Aster eyed Pitch suspiciously.

"What are you up to Pitch?" he asked and Pitch smirked.

"Nothing at all Aster. At least not yet at least." he replied, before slinking off somewhere and Tooth shuddered.

"He creeps me out." she commented and Sandy nodded in agreement. North however, was looking at Jack.

"What did he mean by that?" he asked and Aster swatted a hand in the air.

"Who cares? Not me that for sure" he said as he then joined the line of boys with Sandy and North behind him and Tooth went into the girls line. Pitch was two spaces behind Sandy, hoping that Jack would come behind him so they could talk but three other boys came behind him. He growled to himself as he saw Jack at the very end of the line. He would talk to him later.

The line went down fairly quickly and the girls seemed to be getting better marks than the boys. Only a few of the boys got B's and nearly all the girls had above that. Tooth had an A+ of course, seeing as she was a straight A student and had never gotten below an A in her life. North was a little clumsy when it was his turn but he achieved a C+ which he was pleased with as it was one of his highest marks in P.E. Sandy had a B+ as he was quite good with this type of thing but he wasn't the total best. Pitch was the same as Sandy with nearly everything which displeased Sandy quite a bit as he didn't like having anything in common with him at all.

Aster of course, was feeling super cocky when it was his turn. It was only him and Jack left as some boys had pushed in front of them. The girls were all done and so they were watching the remaining two and Tooth had come back over by North and Sandy. "This is how a pro does it." Aster whispered so only Jack could hear. Jack who felt like kicking Aster at that point, backed away from Aster to avoid doing so.

Taking a running sprint, Aster was quickly speeding towards the trampoline where his smile never left his face until his foot got caught in a part of the trampoline. He let out a yelp as he lost his balance and landed on his stomach on the pole and flipped over clumsily and roughly, where he landed on his back on the mat.

The hall burst into laughter and Jack was one of the loudest laughers but he made sure Aster didn't see him. Aster got to his feet and he winced as his back clicked painfully and he saw the teacher shaking his head. "That would be a nice big F you got there!" he said, writing it down on his clipboard.

Aster groaned loudly as he hobbled back over to his friends and he was cross when he saw them laughing. "It wasn't funny!" he commented.

"Then why is everyone laughing?" Tooth said, trying stifle her giggles.

"You would have laughed if it was someone else." North said and Aster saw that point.

"True." he said.

"You were so bad, even North beat you. That must be a tough loss." Pitch called over from where he was standing. Aster would have shouted something out but the teachers were there so he couldn't. That didn't stop him seeing Jack, who was still sniggering from the routine.

"You think it's so funny Freak? Let's see you get it perfect then!" Aster yelled angrily. Sandy sighed at his friend as did Tooth.

"Will you give it a rest?" she asked and Aster shook his head.

"No! I will not have that freak laughing at me!" Aster replied back and he was angrier when he heard North curse him in Russian. Jack had heard the whole thing and he cracked his knuckles and put some chalk power that was in a bowl nearby on his hands. He wasn't a show off but he could do things that would shut that kangaroo right up. Unfortunately for him, everyone else heard Aster's comment too so now everyone was looking at Jack. As he positioned himself, Jack breathed in and out.

"Ignore them, just pretend you're alone." Jack whispered. He heard the starting whistle and he took a big push off, then surprising everyone by doing a couple of flips to pick up speed. The boys were all especially surprised as none of them, not even Pitch, did flips like that to pick up speed. Jack now knew he was going fast enough so he stopped the flips and leapt onto the trampoline and somersaulted off it and he gripped the bar with his hands.

He felt his muscles pull as he spun himself around and upside down on the bar before letting go of the bar so he was quite high in the air. He then did a triple somersault before landing in a perfect position for landing. As he straightened up, the hall was in dead silence and most of the kids had their eyes widened and Aster's eyes looked ready to pop out of their sockets. Then someone started to clap and then everyone joined in and Jack was doing his best not to blush.

The girls were the ones cheering the loudest as Jack then did a sheepish wave. The teacher looked dead impressed. "Well done my boy! No boy here has ever done that well! You get an A++!" the teacher said with a huge smile. "Go and get some water; that must have taken some practice to do!" he added.

Jack nodded as he did feel a little out of breath but when he went to get some water, he made sure he walked right past Tooth, Sandy, North and Aster. As he walked by Aster, he stopped in front of him and shot him a mischievous grin. "Do you know what is more humiliating than what you just did?" he asked and Aster glared at him but North was trying not laugh as he spoke.

"What is?" he asked.

"The guy who thinks he's the best, just got served by the class freak." Jack said before giving him a cocky smirk and walking off to change and get some water. Some nearby boys heard what Jack said and now they were laughing at Aster.

"Oh man, you got burned there bro!" one of them said and Aster growled angrily.

"Ah shut your face Riker!" he snapped.

"Come one Aster, I think you deserved that" Tooth said and Aster pouted as he was more humiliated than ever.

Jack, who had just finished changing and was in the bathroom, splashing some water on his face from the taps, was startled to see Pitch standing by the door. "Whoa, didn't know you were there." Jack said, turning back to the sink.

"That took some doing." Pitch said.

Jack turned back to Pitch, a bit confused at what he was getting at. "Huh?" Jack asked.

Pitch stepped forward with his arms behind his back. "Stand up to Aster like that. No one ever does that, expect for me and you." Pitch said. Jack remembered what Sandy said about Pitch but he didn't seemed too bad.

"Well, Aster deserved what he got." Jack replied, "He thinks he the best but he's nothing more than a jerk."

Pitch was intrigued more and more by the second. "Indeed. How would you like to hang out with me after school Jack?" Pitch asked and Jack almost froze. Someone was asking him to hang out? He had to make sure.

"You're not being funny are you? If I go out and meet you somewhere, it won't be a trick?" Jack questioned and Pitch shook his head.

"I swear on my life Jack. Pranking and playing tricks isn't one of my favorite hobbies." Pitch said, holding up a hand as if taking an oath. Jack then brightened.

"Uh well okay, can it be this Saturday? I have a job on week days." Jack asked. Pitch nodded with a smile.

"Of course. Do you need my number?" he asked and Jack then coughed awkwardly.

"I would take it but I uh…" Jack started but Pitch stopped him.

"You don't have a phone. I understand. Are you not trusted with one yet or is it personal reasons?" Pitch asked.

Wow this was new for Jack. When someone had asked him that question before; they had made fun of him. "Personal reasons." Jack said, not fully trusting Pitch yet. Pitch smiled.

"Let's say Saturday at eleven?" he asked and Jack nodded.

"Sure" Jack said, trying to hide his eagerness. Pitch smiled again before walking out of the toilets and Jack didn't see the smug smile on his face that had a sinister tinge to it.


	6. A Signature Cocky Smirk

Spirit -not so- Well High School

A Signature Cocky Smirk

The school day was finally over and all the kids had ran out of school and into the world of freedom. All of them were happy to get out but the only one who wasn't happy, was Aster. He was pissed. Well pissed in fact. When he was getting changed, all the other boys were taunting him; knowing for a fact that Aster didn't like to be beaten by anyone.

North saw his face and he patted him on the back. "Ah, cheer up Aster! Is not the end of the world!" North said and Aster glared at him.

"In your world it isn't! This is never going to get away from me!" Aster retorted. Tooth shifted her back on her back.

"Well, you kinda deserved it." she said and Sandy nodded as he held up his notepad.

"Yeah I agree, you were so mean to Jack."

Aster scoffed as all of them exited out of the school, "I don't care! When I get my hand on that Jack kid, I'm gonna…!" Aster began but a voice made him freeze.

"I certainly hope you're not going to hurt him Aster. I would be very disappointed in you if that is the case" Mr. Moon said calmly. All four teens turned around to see the Head Master standing behind them.

"O-of course not!" Aster stammered. Mr. Moon was the only one who he was actually nervous of. Mr. Moon smiled.

"I am glad to hear it. Now about the Easter festival. Have you got any ideas?" he asked, already knowing that they did.

North smiled, "Yes! We are thinking of doing a show during the festival! Aster can dress up as a fluffy bunny!" he said and some kids nearby snickered at that last part. Aster almost hit North at that.

"Mate?! Are ya trying to humiliate me even more?" he snapped and Sandy sniggered at that.

"Ah I did hear. Seems that Jack has some talent wouldn't you say?" Mr. Moon asked and everyone, minus Aster, nodded eagerly. "And a show North? Yes that is a good idea but where will you set it? A new place every year you know."

North frowned at that, "I didn't think of that. Ideas anyone?" he asked. Sandy and Tooth thought hard but they had nothing.

"How about a field?" Aster suggested.

"We want to entertain them, not bore them with grass Aster." Sandy wrote.

Aster folded his arms at that and Mr. Moon smiled. "Well I have a new idea, one that I have thought carefully about. What about the ice rink near the play park that also has a field? You could put on an ice show, sell things in the field and children can play in the park." Mr. Moon said and North's blue eyes lit up as did the others.

"Yes! I can see it now! Lights! Stalls! Everything! Easter themed ice dance show! Aster, you must learn how to skate!" North said and Aster flinched at that.

"Oh no mate! I hate anything cold!" he replied. Tooth rolled her eyes as she and the others knew that Aster was a spring lover and a winter hater. She was about to call him childish but Mr. Moon spoke again.

"I see. Well, you can always go down to the rink and see if any of the coaches will volunteer. I'm sure they will agree to help with the festival too. You can go there now so you can get an early start." he said, handing them some vouchers. "These will get you a few free lessons and skates. My niece had no need of them and neither do I but I thought I would keep them in case they ever came in handy. Obviously I thought right." he said, handing them to Sandy.

"Great! I'll just text my mum!" Tooth said, pulling out her iPhone and typing quickly and the other did the same. Mr. Moon smiled as he watched them. He had picked the ice rink specifically for them and not just for the festival.

"Okay guys! Let's take my truck! It will be quicker and faster!" North said and Aster gulped as he hated North's driving. He hated the fact even more that North had never gotten a speed ticket in his life… yet.

"Please let me know how it goes. I am quite keen to know." Mr. Moon added as the four started to walk off. Tooth turned around to face him.

"Any reason why that is?" she asked politely.

Mr. Moon shook his head with a smile. "Not at all. Why so curious Toothania? Curiosity killed the cat you know." he said. Tooth just smiled as she knew Mr. Moon and his comments. She then followed the others to North's truck that was parked just a little away.

It was a monstrous red vehicle with fluffy Christmas baubles hanging from the mirror. The cover seats had a holly pattern on them and the steering wheel was red too. North got in the driver's seat and Sandy sat in the passenger seat while Tooth and Aster sat in the back.

"Buckle up!" North said, putting his keys in.

"For the last time North, there are no bloody seatbelts!" Aster yelled.

"I know! And for the last time, it is just expression!" North shouted back, then slamming his foot down so the truck shot forward like a rocket. Aster was gripping the seat with his hands so hard, he almost ripped some of the seat off. Tooth laughed as she felt the wind rush through her hair. This was going to be a fun ride.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Fun indeed. They finally arrived at the ice rink and Aster staggered out of the truck like a zombie. "North… you have to install sick bags inside hat thing… and practice driving more." Aster said with a choke.

"Nonsense! There is nothing wrong with my driving or I would have crashed by now!" North said as he walked towards the entrance, feeling perfectly fine. Tooth and Sand felt a little dizzy but unlike Aster, they weren't exaggerating.

"So that's the way in?" Tooth asked as North was walking to a double door with people coming out and going out. They were all talking about how fun it was and some of the little kids were talking about their teacher who was apparently really fun and was really nice.

"Pretty sure! Got the vouchers Sandy?" North asked and Sandy held them up in response. "Good! Let's go!" North added, once seeing them.

They walked through the entrance to find themselves in a room with only a reception desk and a door that obviously led to the ice rink with an odd rubber floor beneath them. The black haired girl with brown eyes sitting at the desk, glanced up from what she was reading. "Hey! Welcome to Burgess ice rink! How can I help?" she asked.

Sandy placed the vouchers on the desk and the girl picked them up and looked at them. "Oh, you're here for ten free lessons every Monday? I thought teens like you would be doing something else." she said.

"We are in charge of the Easter Festival and we were hoping we could do an ice show here on Easter Sunday!" Tooth said. The girl picked up a pen and scribbled something down.

"Okay, I'll take to the boss. Is it your first time skating?" the girl asked.

"Yes it is…" North started but didn't finish as he didn't know her name.

"Cindy. Well if it is your first time, then I'd better put you with the expert." Cindy said, pressing something on her desk. "We got a couple of newbies here J! Take care of them." she said, the taking her finger off whatever she was holding. "Can I take your foot size?" she added before anyone could ask anything.

After their shoes had been swapped for skates, they were now standing upright and could see why the floor was made of rubber. "Okay, I think we are ready!" North said and an eye roll came from Aster.

"Okay, in you go! J should be with you any minute! Just on his little break as he was just teaching some kids! He is so good with kids! He could help with the Festival!" Cindy said.

Sandy smiled at that and looked up at Tooth. She smiled back as they both thought of how great it would be to get another member of the team to help with the festival this year.

The group pushed through the large blue doors that lead to the rink, the sudden decrees in temperature causing Aster to shudder. "Oi! This is supposed to be an Easter Festival! Anyone mind explainin why we're doing this at a bloody ice rink?!"

The others just rolled their eyes at their friends complaints and made their way to a gap in the wall that surrounded the ice. Each member of the group collectively felt there jaws hit the floor as they looked through the clear plastic barrier above the wall and out onto the ice.

Or rather, to the person out on the ice.

A tall, thin boy who the others immediately assumed must be J was skating out in the middle of the rink. Or at least what would be considered skating by someone competing for the Olympics.

Spins, jumps and axels fallowed one after another in perfect synchronization as the figure skated around the rink. Rushing forward to pick up speed one moment then launching himself into the air the next, only to spin around and touch back on the ground, continuing to skating backwards!

The four watched in amazement as the figure continued to glide along the smooth ice as easily as if he were walking. Each one attempting to get a better look at the guy's face that was hidden under his drawn hoodie.

Toothiana had seen professional skating before. Her family had a tradition of watching the Olympics to cheer on their countries representatives as they fought for the gold. But her favorite was by far the winter Olympics, if only for the skating competition.

She had seen these moves before; every four years sense she was a little girl. And all she could ever think of is just how much passion these people must have for this. How long must it have taken them to learn and perfect these skills. Seeing that always got her pumped up and gave her the drive and determination to do her best and keep trying to fallow her dreams.

Sure being a dentist wasn't as fancy as being a skater but it was what she wanted. That was her passion, and seeing things like this made sure she never forget that.

All of them were thinking along the same lines on shock and awe, and even Aster had to admit he was impressed. After a few more minutes the figure began to slow down to catch his breath, allowing him to finally notice the little audience that had been watching him.

Keeping the hoodie up and concealing his face he made his was across the ice to the gap in the wall where the group was waiting for him.

North was the first to step forward to greet him with a large, impressed smile. "I must say my friend that was very impressive!"

"Ummm T-thanks?" The figure shifted and squirmed just slightly, a slight blush creeping up his cheeks under the dark blue hoddie. North ether didn't notice the others slight nervousness or simply ignored it.

Tooth was the next to step forward and was immediately fallowed by the others. "So you must be J then? Wow are we lucky to have someone who can skate like that to be able to help us out! None of us have ever skated before."

The figure smirked under his hood. "Never huh? Well I guess we better get started then! I'll show you what you need to know."

North gave a hearty laugh. "Of cores! Though I don't think we'll be able to learn all of those fancy moves before the festival!"

"Festival?" The hooded boy asked, seeming mildly intrigued but not losing the mischievous smirk on his face.

"Oh! Next month our school is putting on our annual Easter Festival and we were hoping to be able to do an ice show for the kids!" Tooth said excitedly. "But I don't think we'll be able to do even half of the stuff you just did by then."

The other boy just continued to smirk from under his hood. "That's probably true. Maybe we should just start with teaching all of you how not to fall down then?"

"Ah yes! Very good idea! Though it is going to be very hard to learn from someone who we can't actually see face to face."

The figure suddenly stiffened, this time his actions being noticed by the rest of the group who looked at him curiously. After a few moments of internal debate he finally sighed, slowly raising his hand to pull back the blue hood.

Revealing an all too familiar mop of white hair and a signature cocky smirk.


	7. Well THIS is Unexpected

Spirit -not so- Well High School

Well THIS is Unexpected

The figure suddenly stiffened, this time his actions being noticed by the rest of the group who looked at him curiously. After a few moments of internal debate he finally sighed, slowly raising his hand to pull back the blue hood.

Revealing an all too familiar mop of white hair and a signature cocky smirk.

It took all of four seconds for the Australian teen in the group to snap out of his shock. "Frost?!"

And said white haired teen just continued to smirk, not letting an ounce of his rising anxiety over the situation show and maintaining his signature hellion attitude. "Well you know I normally go by 'Jack' but 'Frost' works just as well if you really wanna be formal about it."

Aster didn't even have a second to retort with the very long list of insults that had flooded into his mind the second he realized who he was talking to before Tooth decided to start bombarding the object of his hatred with exclamations and questions that he didn't even have time to answer.

"Oh my God! Jack, that was absolutely amazing! How long have you been doing this?! Were you on a team or something?! Was it at your last school?! So this is why you were so good in gym today! Oh this is just so perfect! You get to help us prepare for the show and- Oh Jack you can even be IN the show and-"

Jack's eyes seemed to grow wider and wider with each passing second as the hyper girl spoke at a mile a minute and a few fleeting thoughts whipped through his mind that he could actually understand were all along the lines of 'MAN this girl can talk.' And 'Does she even breathe?!'

Thankfully for Jack though, Sandy was quickly able to notice his uncomfortableness with the situation and stepped in to save the day.

Toothiana suddenly stopped her high speed interrogation session when she felt a light tugging on her right sleeve and looked down to see Sandy giving her the 'You're doing it again.' look. It took a second before she fully understood just what was going on before giving both Jack and the shorter teen a sheepish smile and an embarrassed laugh.

"Hehe. Umm sorry about that. I seem to have this little problem with going off like that when I get really excited." She laughed nervously again and looked down with a blush when she saw Jack smirking at her again.

"Hay its cool. Just wasn't really expecting to be interviewed today, and while being so underdressed for the occasion too." He said with a wink.

Tooth knew he was just kidding but she couldn't help her face going red as a tomato when he said this. Oh GOD why did I have to do that?! She was mentally yelling at herself for just suddenly going off again. This was just so embarrassing!

Aster watched the exchange between the two with dangerously narrowed eyes and was about ready to clock Jack but North got in the way before he could do anything. AGAIN!

"Haha! This is perfect!" The large Russian teen stepped forward and wrapped an incredibly large arm around Jack's thin shoulders, not noticing just how much the smaller teen tensed up with the sudden physical contact.

"Now we have new addition to the team for the Easter Festival!" He exclaimed loudly.

"WHAT?!" This was both Jack and Aster, each one glancing at each other when they realized they had spoken in sync. (Though Aster's was actually a hard glare)

"North you can't be serious! Don't tell me you want this bloody little show pony joinin' us! He'd make a mess of everything!" He all but screamed at his Russian friend. Thank God there was no one else in the room or they would have been attracting way too much of a crowd by this point.

Because all of the others were too busy glaring at their Australian friend none of them managed to catch the brief look of hurt that flashed across Jack's face before he managed to hide it again. He wouldn't give Aster the satisfaction of knowing that he had just hit a weak point, he'd never live that down. Besides it's not like he wanted to be doing this anyway.

"Aster! Your just being plain horrible today! How could you just say something like that right to his face when he's done nothing to you?!" Tooth said as Sandy nodded in confirmation.

"I can do it because he's a bloody nuisance and a freak! Not to mention the fact that he humiliated me in front of the whole bloody gym!" Jack's mask once again fell but this time to revel an emotion he was more than happy to let show, glaring at Aster while simultaneously clenching his fists in his hoodie pockets to keep from slugging him.

No! I am NOT getting in trouble because of another stupid fight no matter how much this prick deserves it!

"Aster you're going way too far-"

"No, no. The Kangaroo's right."

That single sentence stopped freaking time for every member of the group. Everyone froze on a dime the second those words left Jack's mouth and they all felt their eyes widen as they looked between him and the aforementioned 'Kangaroo,' as a single thought passed through all of their minds.

This is gonna get worse before it gets better.

What happened next was both comical and horrifying. Aster's head turned slowly towards Jack like something out of a horror movie, his green eyes sparking with furry and his hands matching Jack's to clench at his sides, though he was doing this for a whole other reason than to avoid fighting.

"What did you just call me? Oh, I am NOT a Kangaroo mate." He spoke harshly down at Jack who was a good four inches shorter then him at least, moving forward with every word as he glared daggers into the other teen. But Jack met the glare with one of his own and stood his ground. Not one bit willing to feel intimidated by this guy.

North, being someone who was maybe just a bit misguided, was not actually stupid. Seeing where this was quickly going he removed his hands from Jack's shoulder and backed away to stand with Tooth and Sandy who were both silently debating whether to get ready to call 911 or not.

"Oh really?" Jack asked sarcastically as he stepped forward to meet the Aussie teen. "Well you could have fooled me, all this time I thought you were. So then if you're not a kangaroo, what are you?"

Aster's last nerve had been cut with that one line. Screw the consequences! He was NOT letting this bloody little freak get away with this! "I'm what's gonna slam your face into the ice!"

Aster brought up his fist and readied to send it straight into the smaller teens gut just as Jack raised his fists to send straight into Aster's jaw.

But before ether could party could land even a single blow on the other the large blue doors to the rink suddenly burst open when what looked like two little blurry tornado shot through it.

"Jack!"

Said white haired teen had only seconds to prepare before was rammed into by the small tornados that screamed and giggled happily as they plowed into his gut and wrapped their arms around him like a couple of little monkeys. Thankfully Jack had seen this coming and had prepared, being more than a little used to this after a few years.

One little tornado had deep wavy brown hair that was tied up in a messy pony tail with a green scrunchy and was wearing a light jacket that had feather designs sewn into it. Her multicolored amethyst and sky blue eyes looking up at the captured teen with happy excited eyes as she clung to the sleeve of his blue hoodie for dear life.

The second little tornado had a messy head of straight blond hair with uneven bangs that fell over her right eye. She wore a bright pink jacket with a picture of a hopping bunny and an Easter egg on the front, though it was currently hidden as the little girl hugged Jack around the waist as tightly as her friend held onto his arm.

"Jack! We missed you!" The tiny girl on his arm said happily.

The very second those doors had burst open Jack's entire domineer had changed, every ounce of anger washing off of his face to be replaced by an overly large grin just before he was nearly tackled to the ground. He laughed at the girl's statement and reached over with his not captured hand to ruffle her hair with a smirk.

"Aw common, you two saw me just over an hour ago!" He said. Completely forgetting the fact that he was about to fight Aster not even 30 seconds prior. Said Australian teen had dropped his hand to his side limply as he tried to register what he was seeing along with the others before yelling.

"So-Sophie?!"

The small blond girl who was still latched onto Jack and was laughing happily looked up when her name was suddenly called out, and her emerald green eyes widened in excitement as she saw who had said it.

"Big brother!" She squealed happily, letting go of Jack in the blink of an eye and running to instead grab hold of her elder sibling. Aster stared down at his baby sister in shock before looking back at Jack with a dumbfounded expression that he returned with a signature smirk.

The other girl that was still hanging from Jacks arm looked over when her best friend suddenly ran away and saw something that made her give a similar reaction as her friend when she saw the tall girl with multicolored highlights in her hair and a shocked expression on her face.

"Sissy!"

The second little girl quickly ran over to give her big sister a hug just like her friend and Tooth had only a moment to collect herself and snap out of shock before she suddenly had an armful of 6 year old. "Anna?! W-what are you doing here?!"

But before the little girl could give an answer another voice came through the doors. "Well I could very well ask you the same question now couldn't I?" The kind voice came from a woman with light brown hair and sparkling violate eyes that twinkled with amusement as she watched the scene unfold.

"Mom?!" Tooth yelled in both shock and utter confusion.

"Yes dear, hello to you to." She chuckled lightly as her youngest daughter tried to climb up her oldest like a jungle gym. "Oh! And hello to you to Aster, Sandy, North. I must say I didn't expect to find all of you here like this."

Both Sandy and North had regained enough sense to wave and smile at the kind woman they had met on many occasions while bunny just continued to look dumbfounded at everyone as he tried to figure out just what the hell he had just seen.

"And a hello again to you to Jack." She smiled.

"Hay Mrs. F! I was actually just about to go call you and say Sophie left her bag here after class." He said, all of the others besides the two 6-year olds turned to look at him in yet another collective wave of shock and confusion, but neither Jack nor Mrs. Ferry took any notice.

"Oh thank you so much Jack, I'm really sorry about this. I hope it wasn't too much trouble."

Jack just waved her comment off with a polite smile. "It was no problem at all, it should still be behind the back desk if you'd like me to run and get it."

"Thank you that would be very helpful, again I'm sorry about this." She said kindly.

Jack just nodded and walked off toward the back on the rink to an old service desk, taking the time to briefly smirk at Aster's still overly confused look before going.

"So now," Mrs. Ferry said, drawing the four remaining teenager's attention to herself. "What might I ask are you all doing here on a Monday afternoon?"

Tooth paused for a few seconds before lightly shaking her head and answering her mother's question. "We came here for free ice skating lessons with passes from Mr. Moon. He thought it might be a fun idea to have a show for the kids at the Easter festival this year."

"Oh that's a wonderful idea! Very creative of you all, though after last year I'm really not surprised." She spoke of the wonderful carnival that they had all put on the year prior along with the traditional egg hunt.

All of the other teens nodded in agreement except for Aster who was still completely gob smacked at the moment.

"Aster? Are you alright dear you're looking a little sick?"

That was enough to snap the Aussie out of his daze. With a little shake of the head to clear his mind he finally forced the words out of his throat to form the question that was at the forefront of everyone's minds.

"Um, yeah… Sophie?" He said, looking down at his little sister who was now clinging to his leg and looking up curiously at him.

"H-how exactly do you know Frostb- I mean Jack?" He corrected, catching himself at the last moment. Luckily for him his little sister didn't take any notice as she beamed up at her big brother excitedly.

"Jack's my teacher!"

"Mine to!" Anna called from where she had managed to climb onto her sister's back.

"Your…teacher."

"Yep!" She chirped. "He's the best teacher ever! He's so much fun and he's really, really nice!"

"And he doesn't get angry at us when we fall down like the other teacher." Anna added.

A moment passed as the group of confused teenagers let that little bit of information sink in. Tooth was the first to speak, Aster having once again gone dumbstruck, and looked to her mom for confirmation. "Mom? Is that true?"

The woman smiled again and nodded. "That's right. Jack has been teaching Anna's and Sophie's skating class for well over a year now."

Aster may as well have taken a slap to the face with that one. He had known that Sophie had been taking these lessons for a long time, and she would often come home and talk about how much fun she had and how much she loved her teacher. She had said his name was Jack but wouldn't have ever thought in a million YEARS she was talking about that bloody little show pony!

"So how do you all know Jack?" Toothiana's mom inquired curiously.

"Ummm he actually just transferred into our school today." Her eldest daughter replied. Though she didn't seem very enthusiastic about this she was actually really happy. Her little sister always talked her about her skating teacher who had incredibly white teeth. (Tooth wasn't the only one in her family with and oral fascination)

But she was still in slight shock over the fact that the guy her baby sister was always talking about was actually Jack!

Mrs. Ferry's smile grew largely when she heard that. "That's wonderful! Maybe you could ask him to be in the show with you all then!" Aster's head shot up like a rocket with that remark but he didn't have time to say anything before she continued.

"He's so good with little kids and amazingly talented. If you all came here to learn to skate then you're in good hands."

The little girl that was still glued to her brother's leg gasped happily. "Maybe Jack could teach us together big brother!"

An involuntary blush creped across Aster's face. There was NO WAY in HELL he was going to be instructed by that bloody icicle! He'd probably make him face plant on purpose!

"Soph I don't think-"

"Here's your bag Sophie!" Jack unknowingly cut bunny off as he walked back to the group. The blond six year old almost instantly detached from her brother who was now once again glaring at the white haired teen.

Jack knelt down to hand back the little girl's stuffed bunny backpack, which she happily accepted. "Now do your best not to forget it again kiddo." He said as he ruffled her already messy hair before bringing up his hand to tap her nose teasingly.

"Otherwise Jack Frost might just nip at your nose." He said with a wink. Sophie laughed and ran away in fake fear to hide behind her brother again before her precious nose could freeze while Aster continued to glare at Jack. He didn't notice, and if he did he really just didn't care at the moment.

"Thank you again Jack, I'm sorry to cause the trouble.

"Again it's really no problem Mrs. F. I just-" Jack suddenly found himself being cut off as Cindy, the girl who the others had spoken to earlier, walked through the blue double doors.

"OK guys I'm really sorry to cut this off but I just got a call from the manager. Apparently there was an appointment for a maintenance worker scheduled to come in today to work on the heater that she so kindly forgot to tell us about." She said sarcastically and rolled her eyes.

"Sadly that means I have to kick you all out and close the rink for the rest of the day."

That surprised and slightly disappointed the group of teens (aside from Aster) who had been looking forward to skating.

"Awwwww! But I wanna skate with Jack and big brother!" Sophie said unhappily with the puppy dog eyes that she had perfected over the years of twisting her brother around her little finger.

Mrs. Ferry smiled sympathetically. "Sorry Sophie but the rink has to close for the day. But when I was talking to your mother earlier I do believe that she had mentioned something about a fresh baked batch of somebody's favorite chocolate chip cookies." She said with a knowing smile.

Sophie's sad look was instantly replaced by an excited smile that was mirrored by Anna while Tooth just shuddered at the idea of what all that sugar could do to her teeth. The two six-year olds let go of their siblings before bolting out the door to the car.

"Bye Jack! See you on Thursday!" Both Sophie and Anna called behind them before they were out the door.

"Now if only they would act like that when it came to brushing their teeth." Mrs. Ferry laughed. "Well it looks like it's time to go then. Aster would you like a ride home?" She asked kindly.

Despite his overly sour mood the prospect of not having to get back into North's death trap made him sigh in relief. "Yeah. That'd be great thanks."

She nodded before something occurred to her and she looked over to Jack. "How about you Jack? Would you like a ride home?"

Again Aster's mood went up in flames as he glared at the white haired teen, not wanting to spend even a single second in a car with him. However he felt his eyes widen slightly as both he and his friends saw Jack suddenly tense. A look of uncertainty passing through his eyes with something else that he didn't quite catch before it fell away with a smile that looked just slightly forced.

"Um, thanks but no thanks. I'm uh, I'm just going to wait for my ride." He said, the catch in his voice not going unnoticed by the others.

"Oh, alright then. Well the girls and I will see you this Thursday then." She said understanding, to which he only gave a polite nod in response before turning to walk away. However, before he left Tooth called out to him with a smile from the blue doorway.

"We'll see you tomorrow at school Jack! You should eat lunch with us!" She said happily. At this Jack froze a moment, slightly in shock at what he just heard before giving her a small smile that this time, didn't seem at all forced.

"R-right. I'll see you tomorrow." He said before turning to leave and hearing the large metal doors close loudly behind him before letting out a long, tired sigh and grabbing his backpack from behind the back service desk. Pulling out a book he had brought just in case he needed it and heading for the back door.

He entered into the small alleyway behind the rink and peaked around the corner to make sure the others had already gone. Seeing that he was the only one there, he left the alley and made his way to the front of the building, dumping his backpack onto a hard metal bench and sitting down.

Turns out he was gonna need that book after all. Four hours was a pretty long wait.


	8. What Else is New? Apparently This

Spirit -not so- Well High School

What Else is New? Apparently This

For the second time that week, which was already seeming like an eternity, a light blue minivan pulled up in front of the steps of the brown bricked building of SpiritWell High School. Jack held back a heavy sigh before opening the passenger side door and getting out of the car, already knowing that today wasn't going to be any better than the last.

"Now I'll be there to pick you up at the rink at eight again tonight. Try and have a good day today Jack, and go straight to a teacher if someone starts giving you a hard time. No fighting." The woman in the driver's seat called after him.

A few kids nearby who heard sniggered and laughed but Jack knew better than to let it affect him, just like he knew better then to go running to a teacher like a snitch every time somebody made some comment about his hair. His only response was a slight nod before closing the door and making his way up the concrete steps of the school building.

With a loud creek the metal doors opened and he made his way through the crowded hall to his locker. He saw people giving him weird looks and smirks before whispering behind his back. Of cores. Not even two days in and I'm already the school freak. What else is new.

He ignored the stares and a few side comments, asking if all of his hair was white or if he was still sited from his little ballerina act yesterday. Apparently word had gotten around about what had happened in P.E. and was just adding to the list of possible things people could mess with him about.

He finally reached his locker and was both surprised and relieved to not see any kind of graffiti or other weird stuff on it. True it had taken a few weeks at his last school for that to start but still.

He opened the locker and dumped his bag onto the floor next to him to grab the books he'd need for math and English. Luckily he was able to grab everything he needed and put it in his bag before his locker was suddenly slammed shut in his face. A large hand held on it firmly to keep him from opening it again.

Jack glanced to the side with in irritated expression and wasn't surprised to find one of the guys who had been chasing him yesterday during lunch to have a little 'chat' with him. He also wasn't surprised to see the guy's friends quickly approaching behind him. Idiots like these always liked to travel in packs after all.

"Well, well, well if it isn't the little freak show." He said snidely. Oh yeah, Jack had dealt with this kind of genius before. Tall, muscular, and severally lacking in the brain department, a total jock who thought he was above everyone else and was just God's gift to the world.

Yeah. Just like the plague, He thought. Or the steroids that gave him such a fat head and shrunk his manhood like a milk dud. That last bit forced him to hold back a smirk.

"You know you're little stunt yesterday with Aster meant more homework for the rest of us don't you? That wasn't a very smart move." He moved in front of Jack to corner him against the lockers as his friends smirked and tried to look intimidating behind him like they expected Jack to start crying and begging for them to let him keep his lunch money.

Jack wanted nothing more than to say "Like every word that comes out of your mouth?" But he kept his mouth shut for the time being. The last thing he needed right now was to get expelled on his second day. But just how was he supposed to get out of this without-

"Like every word that comes out of your mouth?"

And that was the story of how time froze. Both Jack and the group of assailants that had him cornered against the lockers stood still, wide eyed and in shock. Jack was the first to snap out of his stupor almost immediately, instantly recognizing the accented voice but still beyond shocked to have heard it like that.

He looked up at the muscular douchebag who still had his hand against his locker door and had to stop himself from laughing out loud at the look on his face.

The- way too large to have not been on something- teenager had managed to drop his jaw through the hallway floor along with his friends behind him. His expression changed in the blink of an eye from shock to searing anger, his face turning a bright shade of red and his teeth grinding against each other.

Apparently his friends were just slightly more intelligent then there leader and had enough common sense to back off, each one stepping back a few feet from the situation before bolting down the hallway towards the gym.

Jack watched with a smirk of amusement as the two ran away with their tales between their legs while there leader shifted his attention from the white haired teen in front of him to slowly turn towards the guy who he was more than ready to pound into the brick wall.

"Get lost if you know what's good for you Black." He sneered over his shoulder.

Pitch stood there against the lockers with his arms crossed and an emotionless expression, not backing down even the slightest in the presence of the bigger teen who looked ready to spit nails at him.

"Actually, I think I'd rather stay if it's all the same to you Bryce." He said nonchalantly while examining his fingernails with the plainest look of 'I don't give a damn' on his face before smirking.

"Though you're more than welcome to go screw yourself." Jack couldn't hold back that time and he felt a laugh leave his mouth, only to receive another glare from the guy who was apparently named Bryce, not that he actually cared. It actually made the situation that much more hilarious actually.

"Yeah, I think I heard your little friends yelling 'douchebag' when they high tailed it out of here. They were calling for you right?"

Jack had to hold back a wince as Bryce's other hand slammed into the lockers near the side of his head, still retaining his cocky smirk.

"You wanna try runnin that by me again freak?!"

"I'm pretty sure he just called you a 'douchebag.' Looks like all the 'roids have finally managed to loosen your already infantile grasp of the English language." Pitch said, sharing a look with Jack who was almost shaking from surprised laughter.

"Oh you're gonna regret that one Bitc-"

"What was that Mr. Anderson?" Bryce was suddenly cut off from another voice behind them that made him freeze in horror and the fist he had been raising immediately drop to his side. Pitch just continued to smirk at the jock while Jack looked towards the voice in surprise and anxiety.

Mr. Moon stood with his arms crossed in the center of the hallway, looking severely unamused down at the boy who had just been about to start yet another fight by throwing his fist at Pitch.

"You know, I do recall being informed yesterday that you had received an after school detention from Mrs. Katharine. However I was also told that you failed to arrive."

Bryce flinched back at the hard yet calm tone in the principal's voice that was almost never heard coming from the normally kind and patient man. "I believe this would be an appropriate time for you to fallow me to my office Mr. Anderson."

Pitch and Jack smirked as Bryce's shoulders sank in defeat and he started trekking towards the principal's office, but not before glaring daggers over his shoulder at the two other teens with a promise that this was far from being over. When Bryce had finally made his way down the hall towards the front office Mr. Moon turned to look back at the two boys with a kind and knowing smile.

"Alright boys, now I know that wasn't you're fault and I will be sure to handle Mr. Anderson's punishment accordingly." He said before glancing at Jack. "But do try and stay out of trouble. I wouldn't want to have to give out a detention on your first week of school."

Jack nodded curtly in response, knowing that he hadn't actually meant anything in that comment but still thinking about just how well that would go over back home after the director had told him in length about how he was not to get into any more fights and the consequences if he did. The head of the orphanage knew it was never truly Jack's fault, and he had gone to each of his schools multiple times to talk with the principals about the fact that everything happened because people had been bullying him and instigating these fights. But still they were running out of options.

This was his fourth school in four years and the last one within range of the orphanage that he could actually go to. He had to stick it out here or there wasn't anywhere else he could go except for a different orphanage with new schools closer by.

And the last thing he wanted was to leave Burgess right now, no matter how much he hated it here.

Mr. Moon nodded to the two teens once again before turning around and walking back to his office. Jack looked after him for a moment before nervously looking back at Pitch but trying hard not to let it show. No one had actually ever stepped in and helped him like that before so he was a little unsure of how to respond.

"Um, t-thanks for the help back there." He managed to get out while nervously scratching the back of his head before he could stop himself.

'Um, t-thanks for the help back there.' Yeah Jack, real smooth. He nearly face palmed.

However Pitch ether didn't notice his nervousness or simply didn't bother to address it and merely nodded in responds. "Not a problem, the guy's an idiot." He stated plainly. "I must say though, first Aster and now Bryce? Quite the interesting choice of enemies. I must admit I'm impressed."

"Ummm thanks?" Jack said with a smirk, not quite sure how to take that but it was still one of the nicest things anyone at school had ever said to him.

Pitch moved to speak again but before he could a loud ringing of the school bell filled the air signaling the start of the passing period to get to first hour.

"Well, sadly it looks like our conversation will have to be postponed for now so that hell may proceed." Jack held back a laugh at the fact that he could say that with a completely straight face, he wasn't disagreeing though. "If you want we can talk later about this Saturday, if you're still free that is."

Jack smiled at that, still finding himself quite shocked and a little bit weary that someone had actually asked him to hang out but still totally excited about it. "Sure, sounds great."

Pitch smiled again with a small nod before walking back down the hall.

Jack turned and picked up his backpack off the floor with his textbooks inside and started walking to his first class. As much as he hated math he still didn't want to be late. He quickly made it to the room and took a deep breath before stepping in, silently thanking God when he saw he was one of the first few people to get here.

However that was until he noticed Aster glaring at him from the corner of his eye.

He groaned in his head but didn't acknowledge the other teen as he made his way to his seat at the front of the class. He momentarily wondered if Aster had told anyone about yesterday and found himself severely hoping that he hadn't. A few people at his last school had found out about his job and constantly gave him hell about it.

Word quickly spread and the normal bullying he had actually managed to get used to got way worse. He knew he wasn't gay, and he knew there would be nothing wrong with it if he was. But having people just assuming and calling you that just for ice skating was actually what sent him over the edge and caused the emotional breakdown he would really rather not remember.

At least he had heard that the guys who had been torturing him had all been expelled from the school. But even so he just couldn't stay there after that.

The rest of the students slowly made their way into the classroom and started talking. Jack took note of a lot of whispering and laughing behind him but knew well enough to just ignore it and pretend he didn't care, keeping his head forward and not bothering to look back at any of them. Thankfully though he didn't hear anything about ice skating so the small hope that Aster hadn't actually told anyone about it grew slightly and he was able to relax a bit.

The bell signaling the beginning of class rang through the halls and everyone found their seats just before Miss Autumn entered the room.

"Good morning class." She said kindly with a smile while she picked up the roster to take the attendance. "I hope you all remembered to do your homework and… hm? That's odd. Have any of you seen Bryce by any chance?"

Jack couldn't help but smirk at that.


	9. OK What the Bloody HELL Just Happened?!

Spirit -not so- Well High School

OK What the Bloody HELL Just Happened?!

Math went relatively quickly and surprisingly ended with no homework for anyone which Jack was more than a little grateful for. The loud bell that signaled the end of the period echoed through the air and everyone slowly made their way out into the hallways towards there next class while they met up and talked with their friends.

Just like yesterday Jack was the last to leave, trailing behind everyone else as they shuffled into the hallway and headed to their second period, once again having to ignore the strange looks and whispers from the people he walked passed.

God, don't they ever get tired of this? He thought begrudgingly before rolling his eyes with an inaudible sigh. Yeah, after six months.

That's how it always was. For more than half the school year people would stare and whisper behind his back whether or not they thought he could hear them, which most of the time he could. At least that stopped after a while though, then most people just left him alone with the class freak label. But everywhere he went there were always those few wonderful people who seemed to have made it their personal job and pleasure to make his life a living hell every day.

Jack was so caught up in his mind that he wasn't actually paying attention to where he was going until he was abruptly ripped from his thoughts and back into reality when he felt his shoulder accidentally hit something.

"Watch it freak!"

Jack held back a wince at the sudden yell and backpedaled away in reflex from the dark haired boy who was now glaring daggers at him, his friends laughing behind him. Jack matched his glare but stopped himself before he could open his big mouth and say 'Screw you.'

Keeping his hands tightly secured in the pockets of his hoodie he mumbled a quick apology before walking passed the other teen and his group of still laughing friends.

"Man, what a loser!" One of them yelled.

Jack clenched his fists while glaring holes into the tile floor as he kept walking, ignoring the whispers and sniggers he heard next to him as he walked past. At least some people had the decency to whisper there insults when they thought he couldn't hear them. Those jerks didn't even try to hold back.

He walked silently into the room of his next class and took his seat, resting his head in his hands tiredly on the desk. Once again being one of the first to arrive rather than screwing around with the friends he didn't have like everyone else.

"Good morning Jack." He raised his head slightly to look up at the kind smile of his new English teacher.

"Um, hi Mrs. Katharine?" He didn't mean for it to sound like a question but normally even the teachers ignored him unless he was in trouble or pulling a prank, at least that's how it was at his other schools. And truth be told he wasn't quite sure if that's what her name actually was. After what happened in math yesterday he had been a bit out of it and hadn't paid much attention to the first few minutes of his next class when the teacher had introduced herself.

Clearly not taking any offense and understanding what the problem was she merely nodded her head in confirmation. "So how are you enjoying the school so far? I know it must be difficult having to transfer in the middle of the year like this."

Still in slight shock about the fact that this teacher was actually talking to him voluntarily he just nodded dumbly before fully connecting the dots of reality back together in his head and forcing himself to speak.

"Um, yeah. But it's not exactly a new thing for me." He said, momentarily screaming at himself again before remembering that all the teachers he had had probably already read his files and knew about what happened.

Mrs. Katharine smiled sympathetically and her eyes softened again. However it wasn't in a sad way that screamed 'Oh you poor thing' or showed any pity. It was just kind look that showed that she understood, and for this Jack was more than a little grateful. If there was one thing he hated most than it was pity, epically false.

He could clearly remember every detail of the first few months after the accident, and that entire time had been full of nothing but pitying looks and apologies that no one had actually meant. Complete strangers he had never met saying how sorry they were for his loss when he knew that didn't actually give a damn. He was just the poor orphan troublemaker that no one ever wanted.

But that was fine, he could and had learned to deal with that. But when someone now actually did look at him like a poor lost little boy with real pity, he hated nothing more. He wasn't just some lonely orphan, well, technically he was but he could take care of himself! He didn't want their pity, he didn't want them to say sorry, and he most certainly didn't want their 'It'll get better someday.' lies. Because it was four years now, four years and nothing had gotten better, though they sure as hell got worse.

But with her there wasn't any pity. There wasn't any of the typical bull of false sympathies that most adults looked at him with when it wasn't in annoyance or anger. It was just nice. And for that he was grateful.

Mrs. Katharine nodded her head once more in understanding, ether not taking note of how he avoided her question or just choosing not to mention it. "Well I hope that you're able to enjoy your time here. You've had a bit of practice so I believe that you'll be able to find your way here soon." She said.

Half of Jack's mind wanted to say "Doubt it." But he knew enough to keep his mouth shut and just nod back again. It was then that the second bell rang to signal the start of class and he let out a silent sigh of relief when the teacher turned around to start writing on the board.

However that silent sigh turned into a moan in his head when he heard someone take a seat behind him. Automatically knowing that it was Aster's seat.

This was just going to be perfect.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Yeah, perfectly horrible.

Through the entire freaking period Jack could feel Aster burning holes into the back of his head with his glare that may as well have been a blowtorch!

Unlike what he usually did the second the bell rang to dismiss everyone to the break period Jack hurriedly grabbed his bag and made for the door before anyone else had time to put their books away. Now he was walking to his locker as the already narrow hallways seemed to get smaller and smaller as more people left their classrooms and began socializing on their way to break.

Jack quickly reached his locker which he involuntarily scanned for any signs of vandalism or weird notes sticking out from the door that people had often left him at his last school just to add a bit more misery to his day. Thankfully there was still none to be found so be dumped his backpack in front of the blue painted metal and turned the dial to open it.

Grabbing his gym kit and history textbook in exchange for his math and English ones he stuffed them into his bag before anyone could get the chance to slam the door in his face again like this morning.

His thoughts briefly wandered back to that little incident with Bryce and Pitch from earlier and he couldn't help just the smallest grin that etched its way across his face. No one had ever actually stood up for him like that before. Yeah, he knew for a fact that he could take care of himself but it was still… nice to have someone on his side for once.

However that little moment of happy thinking quickly came to a crashing halt. Literally.

Jack was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice when without warning a much larger boy who had been talking to his friends against the lockers suddenly turned around and stepped into his path. The two collided and Jack was thrown back, trying to right himself but managing to oh so brilliantly trip over his own feet and fall back on his butt.

Jack winced slightly at the small burst of pain that shot up his leg from his ankle but even more so when he realized what had happened and heard the loud laughter that he instantly knew was directed at him.

Making an idiot of yourself twice in less than one hour. Great, just great, a new personal best. His thoughts mused sarcastically in a way that made him want to ram his head into a locker.

What'll it be this time? 'Loser?', 'Weirdo?', or are we gonna stick to the ever popular 'freak-

"Ah Jack! It is good to see you my friend!

Jack's eyes shot open at the booming voice and he stared wide eyed up at the Russian teenager that towered over him with a happy smile on his face. Before he could even get over the shock enough to choke out any kind of response he was suddenly hauled off the hallway floor and onto slightly shaky legs.

"Sorry about that, I did not see you there!"

A sharp wave of pain shot up from his ankle when he was suddenly pulled to his feet again and he just barely managed to hold back from showing it. "I-It's no problem. I should have been watching where I was going anyway."

North smiled and Jack was slightly confused to just how exactly he wasn't being threatened or cussed out right now but decided to question it later. North did seem like a different sort of guy than the ones who constantly did that sort of thing to him at his old school though so he was probably being too quick to judge. But after all this time he had sort of learned to question everything about people.

"So Jack are you going to be-"

"Excuse me Nicholas, I'm sorry to interrupt but may I speak with you for a moment?" The Russian teen was suddenly cut off before he was able to ask Jack his question and he turned to see professor Ombric calling to him from the door to the science room.

Jack didn't have him as a teacher but he had already heard a few things about him. Apparently he was very strict about some things but most of the students seemed to like him because he was never actually boring. He had also heard something about him teaching science as if it were magic or something, and seeing him now Jack could believe it. With the long white beard and the strange cane that looked almost like a staff he looked like some kind of wizard!

"Of course Mr. Ombric! I will be right there!" North called back, then he looked to Jack. "Sorry but I have to go. But we can talk later!" The white haired teen didn't even get a chance to respond before North was out of sight and he was left standing alone. Again questioning what had just happened and how anyone could actually say that they wanted to talk with him out of free will.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jack sighed heavily as he flopped back onto the somehow dry grass in the back of the school, wincing slightly at the small burst of pain that ran up his right leg and silently cursing himself for his stupidity at managing to get himself hurt like this just from falling down like an idiot.

"Great. Work is gonna suck today." He grimaced when he felt his ankle and could tell it was clearly swollen. He knew there was no way he could just call in sick, not after the rink closed so early yesterday. Besides he had a class to teach, he was just going to have to grin and bear it for now and pray he doesn't do anything else stupid to get himself even more hurt before school let out.

It would suck immensely but he didn't actually have much of a choice in the matter. "And it's not like I haven't done it before." He mumbled to himself.

With another sigh he pulled a ripe apple from his pocket he had gotten for lunch and a torn up old copy of Howls Moving Castle from his backpack.

"Hi Jack!" Before he even got a chance to flip the book open a loud voice from directly behind him nearly made him jump out of his skin. The apple in his other hand dropped to the grass below him and he turned to face whoever was behind him with a speed that was frightening at best, ready to run if it was those three idiots from earlier planning to finish what they started.

But thankfully it wasn't Bryce and the other two stooges' behind him, well, thankfully for him at least. Toothiana jumped back in surprise and nearly fell flat on her butt before managing to catch herself. "Whoa! Sorry! Didn't mean to scare you like that!" She quickly apologized.

Once again Jack silently cursed himself for being an idiot and freaking out like that. After so freaking long of being bullied and harassed it had just kind of become instinct at this point. He let out a sigh of relief from a breath he didn't know he had been holding and shook his head, immediately reconstructing his carefree mask and the all too familiar smirk he always wore.

"Nah it's fine. Just caught me off guard for a minute." She nodded with a smile and Jack felt his eyes widen disbelievingly when she suddenly sat down next to him and he nearly had to pick his jaw off the lawn when he saw North and Sandy fallowing behind her.

"Jack! We looked for you in the cafeteria but could not find you!" North exclaimed loudly as he took a seat on Jack's other side and started unpacking his lunch. Sandy took a seat next to him and waved happily before pulling out his notepad and jotting something down.

'Hi Jack! How's your second day going?' Though he was still in more than just a little bit of slight shock and he knew the answer to the question wasn't really a good one Jack couldn't help but smile slightly at this.

"Not the best, but I've definitely had worse."

Sandy nodded sympathetically as he caught the unintended but still underlining message in that, he could definitely relate. He was short and mute after all, not everyone was the nicest when it came to being different and it wasn't hard to tell that Jack new about that.

"So what are you doing all the way out here by yourself? I thought you were going to sit with us today." North said, not at all in a demanding or mean way, just a bit of curiosity though they all sort of knew the answer.

Jack froze for a moment at this, truth be told he didn't really have an answer. Well, he actually did but not one that would have actually sounded good. Oh well I just sort of thought you were kidding and didn't actually mean it and that you didn't want the school freak show sitting with you.

Yeah that'd probably go over real well.

He fumbled on his words and tried to choke out a reasonable answer to the question, but both luckily and unluckily he didn't have to because without warning the person he had least expected to see sat down across from him.

Aster was still wearing that hard glare that he had been shooting at Jack the entire freaking day but only glanced at him briefly before choosing to ignore him and eat his lunch.

Jack looked at the other teen in wide eyed shock for a moment before managing to snap back to reality. "I just, kinda forgot about it I guess." He said.

Sandy, North and Tooth all shared a look before smiling and nodding in response, choosing to not mention the real reason they knew he hadn't shown up and silently giving Aster a few passing glares. "That's all right; it can be pretty hard to remember things on your first week in school." Tooth said with a bright grin before biting into her sandwich.

"So Jack, how long have you been working at the skating rink? I must say my friend yesterday was very impressive!"

Jack smiled at that, finding it a nice change of pace that someone is actually thinks what he did was cool other than just automatically making him gay. But North didn't seem like the kind of guy to make those assumptions anyway.

"Umm. Well I've been working there as a teacher for just over two years and I've been skating there since I was a kid."

"Wow! So a pretty long time then huh? No wonder you're so good at it!" Tooth said. Jack blushed just slightly at the sincerity of her complement but didn't say anything.

"Anna and Sophie really seemed to like you to. Anna's been coming back home for the past year talking about how fun her teacher was and how much she liked skating now. You must be really good with kids to keep those two entertained." Jack nodded with a slight smile at that one but noticed Aster tense up across from him at the mention of his sister.

"Yeah, I've always been pretty good with little kids. And as long as you can get them to have fun they're really not as hard to handle as you might think." He said.

Jack and the others looked at Sandy when he started writing something down in his notebook again and waited till he held it up for them to see. 'It's really cool that you've been working there for so long. But I can't actually remember ever seeing you around town before. I know you said you've been to a few different schools but it's still a pretty small place. Do you live out of town?'

Jack read the note and felt his throat go involuntarily dry. He held back the feelings of unease and anxiety that were starting to build up in his stomach like when Mrs. Ferry had offered him a ride home from work. He had said no, and he had said no for a very good reason. But after a moment of silence and unease he finally noticed all of the others were waiting for a response, even Aster who had momentarily stopped eating to listen in.

"Um y-yeah you could say that. I live outside of town a few miles and I never really came here for anything besides work." He stuttered, looking down and away from the rest of them to the uneaten apple still in his lap.

Everyone in the group could tell there was something a little bit off here when they saw Jack give the same sort of reaction he had given Tooth's mom yesterday. Though this time he wasn't trying to force out a smile.

Tooth chose to try and think of a slightly different topic to bring up and the small bout of awkward silence that fallowed Jack's response. However she didn't know that what she was about to say was exactly what Jack was praying that she wouldn't.

"Well that's interesting. So you never come into town with your family to do anything together?" She asked happily. Everyone except for Aster was too focused on Jack's facial response to notice how his hand clenched into a tight fist around the red fruit in his palm. Though the Australian teen wanted nothing more than to not care he couldn't help how his eyes widened slightly at the small action the others seemed to miss.

"My… family?" The question was slow and even, sounding like something a lifeless machine would say rather than an actual person. Sandy and North were now in the same confused state as Aster and could immediately tell that something was definitely wrong here.

Toothiana however was somehow oblivious to the rising tension and continued to speak, hoping to get the chance to learn a bit more about their possible new teammate. "Yeah! Like, don't you ever go to movies or out to eat together? Oh! Speaking of which what's your family like? You're so good with kids, I bet you have a little brother or sister don't you?"

Jack froze the second those words left her mouth. His shoulders tensed like solid rock and his iron like grip on the apple in his hand slackened, dropping the nearly crushed fruit to the grass with a soft thump. That was when the last of the four friends suddenly noticed that something was wrong. The happy smile she had been wearing only seconds ago dropped like a rock as she and the others stared at Jack and waited for any sort response.

But for the longest time he said nothing, merely kept his head lowered so they couldn't even see what sort of expression he had. They all shared a look with one another, silently asking what they should do and what they had done wrong. Even Aster was getting a little anxious though, he would deny it till the day he died and pound any idiot who brought it up unto the ground.

After what felt like an eternity of deafening silence Jack finally managed to choke out an answer, or at least he tried to. But whatever God or cosmic force was watching over him was apparently merciful enough to put an abrupt end to Jack's misery before he could get the chance to respond and the sound of the school bell echoed through the otherwise silent air.

Before any of them even got the chance to blink Jack was back on his feet with his backpack, ignoring the sharp pain that radiated from his bruised ankle and turning his back on the group. "I…I have to go." And without anyone having the chance to stop him he quickly ran away from the group of incredibly confused teenagers.

The four friends sat in slight shock as they watched him run into the back doors of the building like he was running a freaking marathon before looking at one another in concern. And surprisingly enough it was actually Aster that managed to voice the question all of them had racing through their heads.

"OK what the bloody hell just happened?!"


End file.
